Board Game Instructions (and why they are THE MOST important thing) by Elan Lee
The designer of Exploding Kittens, Elan Lee speaks about writing good board game rulebooks.
His original Exploding Kittens rulebook went through how to set up the game and a reference guide for what the cards did. The playtesters who played it without him in the room, purely based on the rulebook did not enjoy the game and were confused if they played it correctly or not.
Similar to what Jesse talks about in How to Write a Rulebook - Designing a New Board Game by Jesse Ross, Elan’s first advice is to start writing the rules right from the get go. His advice is to record yourself when you explain the rules to the early playtesters and pay attention to the questions that arise. (Related: Record your performances so you remember the good bits)
Playtesting is an iterative process and you’re gonna need a new group of players between iterations, especially when you’re testing the functionality of your rules.
Your job in the instructions is to take them from knowing nothing to expertise in as short amount of time as possible. If they fail, you - the game designer - have also failed.
A rulebook shouldn’t feel like a text book or homework. Your rulebook should speak to your players like its a person in the room. Favour 2nd person phrasing over 3rd person phrasing.
Start with the goal.
Knowing what the goal is helps players set further instructions into a context. Adding lore and flavour to the starting overview in addition to the goal can help make the rulebook more palatable. The beginning of the rulebook sets the tone for the rest.
To sequence your rules well, you need to define the terms before you use them.
You can remove a lot of words with proper illustrations.
Giving out strategy tips is a topic that divides the game designers. Some people want the players to discover the strategies themselves but Elan enjoys letting players know the basic strategies to get them started.
Exploding Kittens rulebook is a single sheet, double-sided. On one side are the instructions required to learn how to play. On the backside is the reference — or the field guide as they call it — that explains in detail all the cards. The idea is that players can start playing after going through the first side and can refer to the second when needed.
Use headings as a way to help players find what questions they need answered when they return to the game later, when they are not reading the rulebook from start to finish.